Animal Behaviour

Animal behaviour encompasses the repertoire of actions and interactions through which individuals respond to internal states and external cues. These behaviours range from simple reflexes to complex sequences such as foraging, courtship, parental care and migration. Control mechanisms include neural circuits, neuroendocrine signals and genetic programmes, all shaped by individual experience and environmental context. Behaviour represents both a proximate response—how an animal acts in the moment—and an ultimate adaptation—why a behaviour enhances survival or reproduction. Across taxa, animals balance the costs and benefits of activities such as territory defence, mate seeking and predator avoidance. They employ strategies that may be fixed or conditional, and these strategies can be studied by quantifying latency, frequency, duration and intensity of defined behavioural categories. Integrative approaches combine field observations, controlled experiments, optimality models and phylogenetic comparisons to elucidate the mechanisms, functions and evolution of behaviour.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have elucidated the genetic architecture underpinning long-distance migration in a small passerine. Two interacting genetic loci explain the majority of variation in migratory direction across a hybrid population of willow warblers, demonstrating how simple epistatic interactions can maintain distinct migration routes without severe hybrid disadvantage. Complementary work in partially migratory blackbirds has shown that migrants pre-emptively lower resting heart rate and body temperature in the weeks before departure, offsetting flight energy costs. Despite migrants and residents expending similar total daily energy during winter, distinct metabolic programmes—rather than overall expenditure—underlie different migratory strategies.

Research from all publishers

In a study of Arctic-breeding bar-tailed godwits, increasing synchrony of snowmelt across breeding ranges driven by climate change threatens temporal isolation that maintains subspecies distinctions. Models predict that homogenised phenology may erode population structure by mid-century, highlighting climate impacts on migratory divides. High-resolution tracking of European nightjars has revealed scale-dependent habitat selection: individuals select diverse landscapes at broad scales but target specific features such as grassland and shrubland at finer scales. These findings underscore the need for annual-cycle conservation that addresses both coarse- and fine-scale requirements. In moose, females that lose calves to human hunters adopt more concealed habitat preferences and nocturnal movement patterns during subsequent hunting seasons, illustrating learning-driven adjustments in anti-predator behaviour that enhance survival prospects.

Animal Behaviour publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in animal behaviour across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Epistatic interaction: A genetic phenomenon in which the effect of one gene is modified by one or more other genes.

Partial migration: A strategy in which a portion of a population migrates while others remain resident.

Thermoregulation: Physiological processes that maintain an organism’s body temperature within optimal limits.

Stopover site: A location where migratory animals rest and refuel between long-distance travel segments.

Migratory divide: A geographic boundary where populations with distinct migratory routes meet and interbreed.

References

1. Migratory lifestyle carries no added overall energy cost in a partial migratory songbird. Nature Ecology & Evolution (2024).
2. Global temperature homogenization can obliterate temporal isolation in migratory animals with potential loss of population structure. Global Change Biology (2023).
3. Migration direction in a songbird explained by two loci. Nature Communications (2023).
4. Multi-scale habitat selection throughout the annual cycle of a long-distance avian migrant. Ecological Indicators (2023).
5. Naivety dies with the calf: calf loss to human hunters imposes behavioral change in a long-lived but heavily harvested ungulate. Movement Ecology (2024).
6. Behavioural Biology: Content and History.